And now, here comes the first Lin-stant book trying to cash in on Number 17′s burgeoning popularity: “Jeremy Lin: The Reason for the Linsanity,” to be penned by Timothy Dalrymple for Hachette Book Group, which expects to get it into stores by May — in time for the NBA playoffs. According to a report in the Associated Press, the book promises to give a “Lin-side look at the NBA’s newest sensation,” and will cover Lin’s years at Palo Alto High School, Harvard University and early NBA career — beginning with his summer stint in the Dallas Mavericks’ minicamp, through his signing and brief career with the Golden State Warriors, where he bounced from bench to D-league and back again before being released, and finally ending with his pickup by the bedraggled Knicks and the eruption of the era of Linsanity.

Interestingly, Dalrymple isn’t a sportswriter: The Harvard Divinity School grad cofounded and blogs for the Christian issues site Patheos.com. However, he met Lin at Harvard while completing his doctorate, and ended up conducting a brief video interview with him for the fledgling blog. The interview has since gotten over 64,000 views on YouTube. In addition to their shared Christian faith, Dalrymple notes some other common ground with Lin: Bay Area roots — he was born in Walnut Creek, California and graduated from Stanford, ironically the first-choice school that rejected Lin as a recruit. He also writes that he “grew up…with a Korean adopted sister and best friends who were Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Filipino [and] married an extraordinary Chinese-American woman, and thus joined her family and community (amongst whom I now live). Even though I’m Caucasian, I’ve been around Asian-American communities long enough to see that Asian-American men and women face different stereotypes and different challenges.”

Some sports scribes, like Bleacher Report columnist Eric Ball, are saying that it’s way too soon for a book on Jeremy Lin. “It’s going to be a book that has about five pages worth reading,” writes Ball. “What don’t we know about Linsanity that we haven’t already been told?…This is a clear money grab by the Hachette Book Group.”

Ball’s not wrong there. MSG stock has risen over 12 percent since the Jeremy Lin Effect took hold. Average ticket prices for Garden seats have jumped 27 percent. And his official NBA replica uniform — still virtually impossible to find in souvenir stores in New York — is the league’s best-selling jersey online, far outstripping even that of L.A. Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant (who saw Lin drop 38 points on him a few weeks ago) and Miami Heat sensation LeBron James (who faces Linsanity this Thursday in Miami). And meanwhile, as Ball points out, Lin’s rookie cards are going for over $4000 a piece on eBay.

Dalrymple’s book will undoubtedly sell; so will the other quick to market books that are in progress, including one by prolific instabook author Rich Wolfe. But all of these will pale before the volume everyone’s really waiting for — Lin’s own autobiography, which he put on hold last week after deciding that he’d rather focus on helping the Knicks win ballgames. Typically classy move by the preternaturally mature 23-year-old. We bet he won’t end up dating Kim Kardashian either.